What will it do if you pump diesel gas into an unlead car?

Question

I accidently pumped in diesel gas into my Toyota Camry. Please tell me that it's ok.

Answer 1

You'll kill the car. Drain the tank, or call your vehicle recovery service if you have one.

If you only put a small amount like a half litre before you realised, you could probably just dilute it with a full tank of unleaded and don't do it again!

Answer 2

If you put less than five gallons in, it will mix with the gas you had in the tank already and you should burn it without many problems, considering you had 15 gallons or more of gas already in the tank. If you put in more than that, you'll need to have the tank drained and filled back up with gasoline. Either way, it will run smokey for a little while, but you will not damage the engine... might need new spark plugs and o2 sensor, but otherwise the engine will be okay. Diesel fuel is more oily than gasoline which is one of the reasons why it won't combust like gasoline and why it'll smoke when burned in your engine.

Answer 3

It isn't OK.
If you had quite a bit of gasoline in the tank to begin with, the diesel (if minimal) will be diluted and the car MAY run, albeit not very well. If there is a great deal if diesel in the tank, the engine will quit very soon.
In addition, the diesel will damage the catalytic converter.
BTW--- How did you do this? The diesel nozzle is too large (by design) to fit into a gasoline tank filler.
Ya might want to check if that was really the case. You may have just scared yourself needlessly. =^..^=

Happy Motoring

Answer 4

Are you sure it was diesel, the only reason i ask is because the pumps for diesel are slightly larger than regular gasoline, they wont fit in the gas tank to fill it up. You may have used a pump that had a diesel nosel, but used tha gas nosel instead.

But, if you did, dont start it, safest thing you can do it have the tank flushed and cleaned, then fill it back up, let it idle for about 20 mins, and you should be set.

Answer 5

A tiny bit of diesel say a pint won't hurt anything. A full tank will not run (long). Have the tank drained and fill it back up with unleaded. It should be as simple as drain and refill, probably purge the fuel line back to the motor.

Answer 6

It's not OK, but you probably didnt do a lot of harm.

It will run like crap, if it runs at all, and will smoke like a chimney, but it won't destroy your engine. It is going to cost you a lot to get the tank drained and the fuel lines flushed and injectors cleaned or replaced. "Full" 60K miles tune up type of cost (several hundred dollars).

If it wasn't much diesel (less than a gallon in a full tank) you can probably get away with doing nothing. If it was a tankful, it'll cost you.

Expensive lesson.

Answer 7

Ohh....bummer.

If was just a little, like a gallon or so, top-off your car with regular gas and you'll be OK.

If it was to much, your car will run, but it will smoke like there's no tomorrow. I mean a lot of smoke. The kind that causes accidents.

I doubt you did any permanent damage to your car. But it will need to be drained and refilled with gas.

Answer 8

Drain it ASAP because putting diesel into a combustion engine car can damage your car like crazy.

Answer 9

Even if the car starts.It will run very poorly.If you have already done this.You will have to drop and empty the fuel tank and flush the fuel lines.It will not have hurt the engine and you will be back to normal.You will have to replace any inline fuel filyer/s

Answer 10

It is not ok, desiel is so much different from regular gas, where a desiel uses combustion to fire the cylinders, gas uses spark. your car will probably break down seeing as you put desiel in your car. So be prepared to either change the motor, tank, or just buy a new car.